PROVIDENCE — Jurors heard Thursday about the police planting two bugs in the attorney-client conference room at the Donald F. Wyatt Detention Facility to record conversations between a defense lawyer and. a convicted felon.

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By
Katie Mulvaney
Posted Nov. 1, 2013 @ 12:01 am

PROVIDENCE — Jurors heard Thursday about the police planting two bugs in the attorney-client conference room at the Donald F. Wyatt Detention Facility to record conversations between a defense lawyer and a convicted felon.

The lawyer, Gerard H. Donley, can be heard on tape explaining to Michael Drepaul about his being granted immunity in a stabbing case. That meant, Donley told him, that Drepaul wouldn’t be prosecuted for anything except perjury, if he lied in his testimony.

Donley, at the time, represented Jamaal Dublin, the man accused of stabbing Drepaul.

Jurors listened to the recording in the trial of Drepaul’s former lawyer, Donna Uhlmann, and Dublin. Prosecutors accuse Uhlmann and Dublin of conspiring with Donley to obstruct the judicial system by bribing Drepaul not to testify against Dublin.

Donley tells Drepaul he learned of the immunity deal after prosecutors notified Uhlmann.

“So, they can’t tell you what to say if you get forced to answer a question. You could be unsure of things … you know what I mean?” Donley says to Drepaul.

Donley explains further: “So, the more difficult you make it for the prosecutors. Now, at the same time … you want to stay as close to the truth as possible.”

He continues: “So, it’s quite, it’s fine if you’re like, ‘Look it happened so fast I don’t remember.’ Or, ‘It could have been this way, could have been that. I’m not really sure who was there, who did it.’ But what you suggested is pretty good … .”

In addition to detectives securing a search warrant to install bugs at Wyatt, Providence Detective Kenneth Court testified about getting warrants from Presiding Superior Court Justice Alice B. Gibney to seize Donley’s and Uhlmann’s cellphones. The warrants specified that Gibney review the contents before any information was released to investigators. Gibney then blacked out all information that didn’t relate to Uhlmann, Dublin, Drepaul and Drepaul’s girlfriend, Nicole “Coco” Brown.

Dublin’s lawyer questioned why Court sought the warrants from Gibney and not the 10 or 11 other judges in the courthouse.

Under questioning by Assistant Attorney General J. Patrick Youngs, Court said that he went to Gibney because of the unusual nature of the case.

Millea and Uhlmann’s lawyer, David A. Levy, also questioned prosecutors’ involvement in the case. Why did investigators for the attorney general’s office participate in seizing the phones?

Court said prosecutors always eventually become involved in criminal cases, but don’t usually play a role at the outset.

Millea asked Court if detectives ever questioned anyone who was at the Bright Funeral Home Oct. 14, 2011, the day of the stabbing. Court said no.

You took Drepaul on his word? Millea asked. Yes, Court said.

Defense lawyers prodded Drepaul’s release from custody, even though he had outstanding warrants, after he implicated Dublin.

Court acknowledged it had been a “quid pro quo” in which the police agreed to free Drepaul after he gave a statement. It was unusual, he said, for the police to reach out to prosecutors, who in turn, got Chief District Court Judge Jeanne E. LaFazia to approve his release.

Court noted that the tape recording did not include any mention of an exchange of money or Drepaul lying to a grand jury to “uphold his end of his bargain” as Drepaul testified this week. He could not say who was using the cellphones that were seized at the time various text messages were sent.